View source for Cribbage (pool)

{{Short description|Two-player pool game}}
{{For|the card game of the same name|Cribbage}}
{{good article}}
[[File:Cribbage pool rack big view.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Setting up a game of cribbage with the triangle [[Rack (billiards)|rack]].]]
'''Cribbage''', sometimes called '''cribbage pool''', '''fifteen points''' and '''pair pool''', is a two-player [[pool (cue sports)|pool]] game that, like its [[Cribbage|namesake card game]], has a scoring system which awards points for pairing groups of balls (rather than playing cards) that total 15. Played on a standard [[Billiards table#Pocket billiards tables|pool table]], participants who {{Cuegloss|Pocket|pocket}} a ball of a particular number are required to immediately pocket the companion ball that tallies to 15 when added to the prior ball's number. Each pair so pocketed counts as a cribbage; there are seven such pairs, and the 15 ball counts as an eighth by itself after all of the others have been pocketed. The first player to score five cribbages wins the game.<ref name="IEOB">{{cite book | last = Shamos | first = Michael Ian | year = 1993 | title = The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards | publisher = Lyons & Burford | location = [[Manhattan|New York, NY]] | pages = [https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000sham/page/56 56, 63 and 161] | isbn = 1-55821-219-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000sham/page/56 }}</ref><ref name="BCA">{{cite book |author=BCA Rules Committee |url=https://archive.org/details/billiards00bill/page/75 |title=Billiards - the Official Rules and Record Book |date=November 1992 |publisher=Billiard Congress of America |isbn=1-878493-02-7 |location=[[Iowa City, Iowa]] |pages=75–76}}</ref>

==Gameplay==
===Setup===
[[File:Cribbage pool rack closeup.jpg|thumb|A cribbage rack: The 15 in the middle, apex ball on the foot spot, and no two corner balls adding up to fifteen.]]
At the start of cribbage, a standard set of fifteen pool balls are [[Rack (billiards)|racked]] at the {{Cuegloss|Foot rail|foot}} end of a pool table, with the {{Cuegloss|Apex|apex ball}} of the rack centered over the {{Cuegloss|Foot spot|foot spot}} and the 15 ball placed at the rack's center. All other balls are placed randomly except that no two of the three corner balls may total to fifteen.<ref name="BCA" /> Such an open-ended racking rule is unusual in that most pool games require particular balls to be placed at the corners of the rack and sometimes in fixed positions inside the rack as well. The arrangement thus results in 134,120,448,000 possible racking patterns (14 × 12 × 10 × 2 × 11[[Factorial|!]]).<ref name="IEOB" /><ref name="Fels">{{cite book | last = Fels | first = George | year = 2000 | title = Pool Simplified, Somewhat  | publisher = Courier Dover Publications | location = [[Mineola, New York]] | pages = 88–89 | isbn = 0-486-41368-3}}</ref>

An {{Cuegloss|Open break|open break}} is required in cribbage, meaning that on the {{cuegloss|break}} either a ball must be pocketed or at least four balls must be driven to rails (as opposed to a {{Cuegloss|safety break}}). The object of the game is to score 5 cribbages out of a possible 8 in a full rack of 15 balls.<ref name="IEOB" /><ref name="BCA" /><ref>{{cite book | author = Ewa Mataya Laurance and Thomas C. Shaw | year = 1999 | title = The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pool & Billiards | publisher = Alpha Books | location = [[Manhattan|New York, NY]] | pages = [https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu00laur/page/238 238] | isbn = 0-02-862645-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu00laur/page/238 }}</ref>

===Cribbages===
A cribbage is a pair of numbered balls which, when added together, total 15. A cribbage only lies where the two partner balls forming the cribbage are each legally {{cuegloss|potted}}, i.e., where no {{Cuegloss|Foul|foul}} is committed on the same strokes that pocket the balls, or the shot is otherwise deemed illegal. The one exception to pairing is the {{cuegloss|15-ball}}, which itself becomes a cribbage but only once all other {{Cuegloss|object balls}} have been pocketed.<ref name="IEOB" /><ref name="BCA" /><ref name="Fels" />

===Rules of play===
A cribbage only counts when the paired balls are pocketed in succession in the same {{Cuegloss|Inning|inning}}. When a player first pockets a ball, it is described as ''on a cribbage''. If, on the next stroke, the companion ball is not pocketed, the shot is a foul and the unpaired ball is {{Cuegloss|Spot (verb)|spotted}} to the {{Cuegloss|Foot spot|foot spot}}. If the foot spot is occupied, balls are spotted as close as possible to the foot spot on the {{Cuegloss|long string}} stretching back from the foot spot to the {{Cuegloss|Foot rail|foot rail}}.<ref name="IEOB" /><ref name="BCA" /><ref name="Fels" />

The penalty for all fouls is the ending of the player's inning; no points are lost, and the incoming player has the option of shooting from position or taking {{Cuegloss|Ball-in-hand|cue ball in hand}} from the {{Cuegloss|Kitchen|kitchen}} (behind the table's {{Cuegloss|Head string|head string}}). In older rules a foul was a loss of one point. Three successive fouls in cribbage is a loss of game. Pocketing the 15-ball when it is not the last ball on the table is ''not a foul''. Instead it is immediately spotted and play continues without penalty.<ref name="IEOB" /><ref name="BCA" /><ref name="General">Billiard Congress America (1995–2005). [http://www.bca-pool.com/play/tournaments/rules/rls_gen.shtml General rules of pocket billiards: Rules 3.10, 3.18 and 3.19] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205042454/http://bca-pool.com/play/tournaments/rules/rls_gen.shtml |date=2006-12-05 }}. Retrieved March 15, 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite book | author= BCA Rules Committee | title = Official Rule Book For All Pocket and Carom Billiard Games| publisher = Billiard Congress of America | location = [[Chicago, Illinois]] | pages = 58 | year = 1970 | issn=1047-2444 |oclc= 30454628 }}</ref>

When a player pockets more than one ball on a single {{Cuegloss|stroke}} at any time, a situation often arising on the {{Cuegloss|Break|break shot}}, they may shoot at any companion balls, but must pocket each in succession in any order. If incidental balls are pocketed on the same stroke that a cribbage is completed, they add to the succession of cribbages the player is "on". When a player fouls by failing to pocket an unpaired cribbage while on a succession of unpaired balls, only unpaired balls are spotted; the prior successful cribbages count toward the score.<ref name="BCA" /><ref name="Fels" /><ref>{{cite book|isbn=9781461749929 |pages=93–94|title=Billiards, Revised and Updated: The Official Rules and Records Book |date=May 2005 }}</ref>

Normal ball and rail foul rules apply in cribbage. This is a requirement present in most pool games that a player must contact an {{Cuegloss|Object ball|object ball}} with the cue ball and after that contact, either pocket an object ball, or some ball including the cue ball must contact a rail. When a foul results from a {{Cuegloss|scratch}}, where the cue ball is played into a pocket or jumping it off the table, the opposing player has cue ball in hand from the kitchen. When a player has cue ball in hand from the kitchen and all object balls are also behind the head string in the {{Cuegloss|Kitchen|kitchen}}, a player has the option of having the object ball nearest the head string relocated to the foot spot. If in this situation two or more object balls are equidistantly closest to the head string, the player may designate which ball is to be relocated.<ref name="BCA" /><ref name="General" /><ref>{{cite book|isbn=0809257777|page=63|title=Steve Mizerak's Winning Pocket Billiards|last1=Mizerak|first1=Steve|last2=Cohen|first2=Joel H.|year=1984}}</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Pool (cue sports)]]